1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of speech processing and, more particularly, to error recovery prompts for transfer to a human agent from an automated response system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Automated speech response systems are often used to interact with users through a speech modality with various degrees of success, often based upon user characteristics and the simplicity of a desired interaction. Many automated speech response systems provide an option for a user to interface with a human agent or human operator, to which the user can be transferred. The transfer can be automatic in response to the receipt of non-valid responses. For example, if a user fails to enter a correct response to a prompt three times in a row, the user can be automatically transferred.
Conventional techniques for determining when a user is to be automatically transferred to an operator are often based upon a single prompt-response condition. That is, response errors during an interactive session that occurred for a previous dialogue prompt are not considered in the processing of a current prompt-response. Consequently, a user that struggles with an automated interface, who eventually correctly responds to the prompts will not be transferred to an operator, even though the user will likely become frustrated with the automated interface. This frustration can result in user dissatisfaction, which may cause the user to avoid the automated response system in the future.
Additionally, conventional techniques treat all response errors as equal. This ignores the fact that different types of response errors can indicate different problems, some of which would indicate that a user should be transferred from the automated system to the human agent more rapidly than other types of problems.
For instance, a time-out error often results from a user pausing to either recall or to locate information needed to respond to a prompt. An erroneous Dual Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF) selection or telephone keypad selection often indicates that a user either was impatient and pressed DTMF keys before hearing all available options, or simply inadvertently and erroneously pressed a response key. A speech misrecognition error, on the other hand, can indicate that an automated system has difficulty interpreting a speech response from a user. Conventional solutions teach all of these different error responses as equal for purposes of determining when to transfer a user to a human agent.